SimpleXML SOAP response Namespace issues - php

Question

After spending SEVERAL frustrated hours on this I am asking for your help.
I am trying to get the content of particular nodes from a SOAP response.
The response is
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope"<xmlns:ns1="http://soap.xxxxxx.co.uk/">
<env:Body>
<ns1:PlaceOrderResponse>
<xxxxxOrderNumber></xxxxxOrderNumber>
<ErrorArray>
<Error>
<ErrorCode>24</ErrorCode>
<ErrorText>The+client+order+number+3002254+is+already+in+use</ErrorText>
</Error>
<Error>
<ErrorCode>1</ErrorCode>
<ErrorText>Aborting</ErrorText>
</Error>
</ErrorArray>
</ns1:PlaceOrderResponse>
</env:Body>
</env:Envelope>
I am trying to get at the nodes and children of <ErrorArray>.
Because of the XML containing namespaces
$XmlArray = new SimpleXMLElement($XmlStr);
foreach ($XmlArray->env:Envelope->env:Body->ns1:PlaceOrderResponse->ErrorArray->Error as $Error)
{
echo $Error->ErrorCode."<br />";
}
doesn't work.
I have read a number of articles such as
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/10/20/simplexml-and-namespaces/
http://blog.stuartherbert.com/php/2007/01/07/using-simplexml-to-parse-rss-feeds/
and about 20 questions on this site, which unfortunately are not helping.
Even writing,
$XmlArray = new SimpleXMLElement($XmlStr);
echo "<br /><br /><pre>\n";
print_r($XmlArray);
echo "<pre><br /><br />\n";
gives
SimpleXMLElement Object
(
)
which makes me wonder if the soap response ($XmlStr) is actually a valid input for SimpleXMLElement.
It seems that the line
$XmlArray = new SimpleXMLElement($XmlStr);
is not doing what I expect it to.
Any help on how to get the nodes from the XML above would be very welcome.
Obviously getting it to work (having a working example) is what I need in the short term, but if someone could help me understand what I am doing wrong would be better in the long term.
Cheers.
Stu

Answer 1

You have to use SimpleXMLElement::children(), though at this point it would probably be easier to use XPath.
<?php
$XmlStr = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:ns1="http://soap.xxxxxx.co.uk/" >
<env:Body>
<ns1:PlaceOrderResponse>
<xxxxxOrderNumber></xxxxxOrderNumber>
<ErrorArray>
<Error>
<ErrorCode>24</ErrorCode>
<ErrorText>The+client+order+number+3002254+is+already+in+use</ErrorText>
</Error>
<Error>
<ErrorCode>1</ErrorCode>
<ErrorText>Aborting</ErrorText>
</Error>
</ErrorArray>
</ns1:PlaceOrderResponse>
</env:Body>
</env:Envelope>
XML;
$XmlArray = new SimpleXMLElement($XmlStr);
$t = $XmlArray->children("env", true)->Body->
children("ns1", true)->PlaceOrderResponse->
children()->ErrorArray->Error;
foreach ($t as $error) {
echo $error->ErrorCode, " " , $error->ErrorText, "<br />";
}
gives:
24 The+client+order+number+3002254+is+already+in+use
1 Aborting

Answer 2

A cheap and nasty way is to just simply remove the prefixes:
$xml = preg_replace('%<(\/)?(\S+):(\w+)%', '<$1$3', $xml);